Denny Hamlin became the second Joe Gibbs Racing driver to lock into the NASCAR Cup Series Round of 12 with his Enjoy Illinois 300 victory on Sept. 7 at Gateway.
Hamlin ran away from Chase Briscoe (locked into the Round of 12 after winning at Darlington) and Chase Elliott on the final restart with about 25 laps to go.
On the other end of the playoff picture, Josh Berry was involved in a crash for the second straight week and finished outside the top 30. He’ll be in a virtual win-or-else scenario at the Bristol cutoff race next week, as will Alex Bowman.
Here is the NASCAR Cup Series playoff picture after Gateway:
After of Race 2 of 3 in Round of 16; Top 12 drivers advance to next round, with a win locking drivers into next round
1. Chase Briscoe (locked into Round of 12 with Darlington win)
2. Denny Hamlin (locked into Round of 12 with Gateway win)
3. Kyle Larson +60 ahead of 13th
4. Bubba Wallace +50
5. Ryan Blaney +42
6. William Byron +39
7. Tyler Reddick +37
8. Christopher Bell +32
9. Chase Elliott +28
10. Joey Logano +21
11. Ross Chastain +19
12. Austin Cindric +11
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13. Austin Dillon -11 behind 12th
14. Shane van Gisbergen -15
15. Alex Bowman -35
16. Josh Berry -45
- Aug. 31: Southern 500, Darlington Raceway (Winner: Chase Briscoe) Round of 16
- Sept. 7: Enjoy Illinois 300, World Wide Technology Raceway (Winner: Denny Hamlin) Round of 16
- Sept. 13: Bass Pro Shops Night Race, Bristol Motor Speedway (6:30 p.m., USA Network) Round of 16
- Sept. 21: NASCAR Cup Series Race at New Hampshire, New Hampshire Motor Speedway (1 p.m., USA Network) Round of 12
- Sept. 28: Hollywood Casino 400, Kansas Speedway (2 p.m., USA Network) Round of 12
- Oct. 5: Bank of America Roval 400, Charlotte Motor Speedway road course (2 p.m., USA Network) Round of 12
- Oct. 12: South Point 400, Las Vegas Motor Speedway (4:30 p.m., USA Network) Round of 8
- Oct. 19: YellaWood 500, Talladega Superspeedway (1 p.m., NBC) Round of 8
- Oct. 26: Xfinity 500, Martinsville Speedway (1 p.m., NBC) Round of 8
- Nov. 2: NASCAR Cup Series Championship race, Phoenix Raceway (2 p.m., NBC)
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